Ari Aster Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

After posting giant per screen numbers at four theaters last weekend, A24’s Beau Is Afraid  jumps to 926 for the distributor’s third outing with Ari Aster. It’s a very different film from his horror favorites Hereditary and Midsommar but one the distributor hopes will cement the director’s place as a modern auteur.

Jordan Moreau Nothing can keep the dead down. “Evil Dead Rise,” the latest movie in the horror franchise created by Sam Raimi, has made $2.5 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. It’s a strong start for a horror movie in April, but it won’t be enough to stop the mushroom-powered, meteoric rise of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which is projected to earn another massive haul with $45 million to $50 million in its third weekend. Universal and Illumination’s hit Nintendo adaptation already has $724 million globally and will soon pass “Minions: The Rise of Gru” as the highest-grossing animated movie in the post-pandemic era. “Evil Dead Rise” is expected to scare up between $15 million and $20 million in its opening weekend, with some predictions as high as $25 million. It’s the fifth movie in Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Evil Dead” franchise, which began way back in 1981 with Raimi’s original, low-budget horror hit starring Bruce Campbell as zombie killer Ash Williams. The previous entry, simply titled “Evil Dead,” made $97.5 million from a $17 million budget in 2013.

Mariah Carey was one of the celeb guests who stepped out to support the new A24 movie Beau Is Afraid at the L.A. premiere!

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Director Ari Aster says it took about six months for Joaquin Phoenix to sign on to star in his new movie, “Beau Is Afraid.” “You get on your hands and knees and beg,” Aster jokes about his first meeting with the Oscar winner. “He’s the best. He’s the greatest. He’s the prince. And those eyes. He could be so naked, so exposed, and he’s funny. He’s a funny guy.” Aster (“Hereditary” and “Midsommar”) and his cast celebrated the Los Angeles premiere of the A24 film Monday night at the DGA in West Hollywood. “It’s when I first saw ‘I’m Still Here’ that I knew I needed to work with this guy,” Aster said. “One, it’s such a funny film, and two, that performance is really a brilliant comic performance. But it’s also because as a gesture that movie is suicidal. What he was doing with his own name there is so crazy and funny and sick. It’s like a sick thing to do. Since then, I’ve known I’ve wanted to work with him.”

Joaquin Phoenix and director Ari Aster have brought their new film Beau Is Afraid to L.A.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Poor Beau. Nearly half a century on Earth, and he’s never really lived. Sure, he was born — that much director Ari Aster depicts from Beau’s point of view at the outset of his wildly self-indulgent and frequently surreal third feature, “Beau Is Afraid,” lingering long enough to witness the infant’s umbilical cord being snipped — but what has Beau done with his life since then? Can it be said that he ever really developed an identity apart from his successful single mom, Mona Wasserman, who haunts the film for the better part of three hours before finally revealing herself? Not since “Psycho” has an off-screen mother loomed so large over a film’s protagonist, played here by Joaquin Phoenix, cowering from the world. The Hitchcock comparison could be misleading, since Aster (who helmed indie studio A24’s two most successful horror movies, “Hereditary” and “Midsommar”) makes a surprising tonal shift away from traditional nightmare material for this deranged road trip, which follows Beau cross-country — and through several substitute families — to face his intimidating Jewish mom.

At a surprise New York City screening, or rather unveiling, of Beau Is Afraid a few days ago, the Q&A moderator, actress Emma Stone, reportedly began by asking writer-director Ari Aster, “Are you okay, Ari?”

Joaquin Phoenix kept a low profile at a screening for his highly anticipated new movie Beau Is Afraid.

In short order, indie filmmaker Ari Aster has become one of the most exciting writer/directors on the planet. Following the one-two punch of two amazing, psychologically bruising horrors, “Hereditary” and “Midsommar,” the filmmaker returns with his most ambitious film, “Beau Is Afraid” which stars Joaquin Phoenix, is a dark, surreal, black comedy nightmare odyssey.

Academy Award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix is a man committed to his craft, able to garner attention on and off-screen. He certainly did just that when he fainted while filming a scene with Patti LuPone in his new film, "Beau is Afraid." In a Q&A at a surprise screening for the upcoming movie, writer-director Ari Aster revealed that Phoenix actually ruined a shot by passing out. "There was a scene that was very intense for Patti, and it was a shot that was on Patti, it was not on him and all of a sudden he fell out of frame," Aster said of Phoenix.

Joaquin Phoenix suffered an injury on the set of his new movie Beau is Afraid.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Emma Stone was blunt. “Are you okay, man?” she asked Ari Aster after a surprise screening of his latest film, “Beau Is Afraid” at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Audiences around the country may be asking variations of the same question after they emerge from the occasionally creepy, often hilarious and deeply weird horror-comedy. It’s a movie about a neurotic man (Joaquin Phoenix) with serious mommy issues, who must endure a phantasmagoric odyssey as he labors to get home following a family tragedy. Over the course of his journey he will be kidnapped by a suburban couple (Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan), stalked by a hulking vet with PTSD, menaced by a paint-drinking teenage girl and embraced by an experimental theater troupe. There’s also an animated sequence, as well as a recurring gag involving Phoenix’s distended testicles, plus a sex scene with Parker Posey that may rank among the wackiest ever committed to film. Oh, and did we mention the whole thing is three hours long?

Ari Aster pulled an epic April Fool’s prank on moviegoers expecting to see a screening of Midsommar but instead were treated to a screening of his newest film Beau Is Afraid starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Y2K.The film is set to be helmed by Saturday Night Live alumnus Kyle Mooney in his directorial debut.

Death On The Nile and Tenet, revealed his choices in a poll for Sight and Sound magazine.Since 1952, the magazine has asked various filmmakers every decade for their lists of the greatest films of all time. As part of the Winter 2022-23 issue, directors like Branagh, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Barry Jenkins and Ari Aster were invited to contribute their favourites.Branagh’s top pick was The Godfather, while Cloud Atlas and Lady Bird also made his top 10.

EXCLUSIVE: Patrick Kwok-Choon, notably recognized for his work in Star Trek: Discovery, has signed with Buchwald for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Leonine Studios and A24 have closed an all rights-deal for Ari Aster’s upcoming movie Beau Is Afraid for Germany and Austria.

Alex Wolff (Hereditary) will reteam with Pig filmmaker Michael Sarnoski on the Paramount Pictures horror A Quiet Place: Day One, Deadline can confirm. He’s set to star alongside Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o and Stranger Things breakout Joseph Quinn.

EXCLUSIVE: WandaVision‘s best song Emmy win for “Agatha All Along”, performed by Kathryn Hahn, set the bar high for the spinoff series Agatha: Coven of Chaos, headlined by Hahn reprising her role as bad gal Agatha Harkness. The Marvel offshoot is now adding some big musical theater firepower, with three-time Tony winner Patti LuPone joining the cast of the upcoming series for Disney+, sources tell Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: The 2x Primetime Emmy nominated and Golden Globe winning Gabriel Byrne has closed a deal, we hear, to star opposite Ana de Armas in the John Wick spinoff Ballerina.